I moved first, using every ounce of my preternatural speed and strength as I slammed him back into the hard brick wall. I drove my stake toward the center of his chest — aiming just to the left of his heart.
But before my stake could pierce his flesh, the vamp’s cold, strong fingers clamped around my wrist. His grip was as solid as iron, and I looked up in time to see his nostrils flare with satisfaction as he twisted my arm — hard.
My stake clattered to the ground. Pain erupted from mywrist, but I didn’t allow it to break my focus. Instead, I drove my knee up as hard as I could — connecting with his groin.
Vampires might have been immortal, but the males were still, well,male. Fury and pain flashed in his eyes, and I used my momentary advantage to sweep one leg out from under him and tackle him to the ground.
Unfortunately for me, he didn’t release his grip on my arm. Tears blurred my vision as my elbow cracked down on the pavement beside him. The vampire tried to roll, but I dropped my weight and used my free hand to draw another stake.
The vamp’s fist connected with my face, and I stifled a yelp as I heard the crunch of cartilage. Hot blood streamed into my mouth, and the vampire’s expression turned feral. My terror became a living thing as he flipped me onto my back, pinning me with his knees.
The hard pavement pressed into my spine. The vamp’s lips drew back over his teeth, revealing long white fangs.
In an instant, I was back in that wretched alley from five years before — an alley not unlike this one. I could still smell the beer and the sick and who knew what else festering behind the dumpster — could still feel my whole body tensing as the vamp’s fangs tore into the delicate skin along the side of my neck.
I squeezed my eyes shut against the memory — the sound of fangs and teeth ravaging flesh and the vampire’s low grunts of ecstasy. He’d torn into me like a wild animal, leaving my body utterly wrecked.
I’d been nineteen years old — weak and untrained. But I wasn’t that girl anymore.
Summoning all my strength, I wedged my arm underthe vampire’s shoulder and shoved with all my might. My pained grunt reverberated in my chest as I pushed and pushed.
Blood ran into my mouth, coating my teeth and pooling in the back of my throat. That wild look flashed in his eyes, and he strained against my hold.
It was now or never.
With a gurgling breath, I released the pressure on his chest, and the vampire launched himself at me — slamming right onto the end of my stake.
I gritted my teeth as bone crunched and a trickle of blood oozed down my neck. The vampire’s full weight fell onto my chest, knocking the breath right out of me.
Fighting for air, I shoved him off and clambered to my feet. Pain radiated from the center of my face, and my whole body shook as I looked him over. Cheap white shirt. Sloppy shave. My stake sticking out of his chest. Thick black blood pooled around the wound, and my heart sank.
He was dead. Useless. The miracle elixir that could make mortals nearly impervious to injury while granting them superhuman speed and strength was already hardening in the slain vamp’s veins.
Silas was going to give me so much shit for this, and there was no time to bag another tonight.
Over the distant rumble of voices on the third-floor deck of the bar, I heard the mortal’s uneven breaths. He was still alive, though he might become another vampire’s meal if he didn’t wake up before the bars closed.
For a moment, I grappled with indecision. I couldn’t justleavehim here.
My mother had always told me that hunters were created by the gods to protect mortalkind from the sorts ofcreatures who roamed the Quarter. I wasn’t sure I believed her — wasn’t sure the gods even existed.
Most days, I felt more like a monster than anyone’s savior. Though I’d certainly saved human lives by taking vampires off the streets, that wasn’t why I hunted each night. I hunted to survive. And sometimes, I hunted for her.
Before I could think of what to do with the mortal, bright headlights flooded the filthy alley, and the throb of bass rattled my teeth. A black SUV rolled up in front of me, and I squinted in the blinding white light.
“What thefuck, Lyra?”
My heart sank, and I hurriedly wiped the blood from my mouth. I didn’t owe Vince an explanation. He was surly and mean-tempered to just about everyone, but he seemed to dislike me especially.
Maybe it was because I was only half hunter — and, as Silas never tired of reminding me, weaker than the others — or because I was female. Vince was conniving and perceptive, and I knew that he’d noticed the way Silas’s cold blue eyes scraped over me whenever we were together.
I honestly didn’t care what his reason was. There were no real friends among Silas’s hunters, and it was dangerous to forget it.
“That one’s cashed,” I grunted as I stormed around to the passenger side and flung the back door open.
I nearly gagged at the overwhelming stench of vampire blood that filled the small space — sickly sweet and a little rotten, like overripe fruit.
At least Vince and Alessio had made their quotas.
